In Texas (and at a plant that I once worked in as a young contact engineer )-A contract vacuum truck operator sustained an OSHA recordable injury when the piping between the truck and a sewer came apart striking the worker in the leg and fracturing the tibia and fibia.

“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.”
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

Well, there have been several completely safe days at my old employer but today in Texas-Contractor struck finger with a hammer resulting in a fractured finger tip.(It does boggle the mind that about 200,000 people in the 45 counties where the company has production facilities and thousands more in about 40 other countries where the company has only marketing operations today received an email about that fractured finger.)

“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.”
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

Well, there have been several completely safe days at my old employer but today in Texas-Contractor struck finger with a hammer resulting in a fractured finger tip.(It does boggle the mind that about 200,000 people in the 45 counties where the company has production facilities and thousands more in about 40 other countries where the company has only marketing operations today received an email about that fractured finger.)I sometimes wonder on the reporting requirements of the national Swiss nuclear safety board, where similar mishaps of handy works happen at power plants. As if such incidents were near to escalating of the nuclear reactor to a state of Chernobyl.

Well, there have been several completely safe days at my old employer but today in Texas-Contractor struck finger with a hammer resulting in a fractured finger tip.(It does boggle the mind that about 200,000 people in the 45 counties where the company has production facilities and thousands more in about 40 other countries where the company has only marketing operations today received an email about that fractured finger.)I sometimes wonder on the reporting requirements of the national Swiss nuclear safety board, where similar mishaps of handy works happen at power plants. As if such incidents were near to escalating of the nuclear reactor to a state of Chernobyl.I suppose that the good news is that there aren't any more serious incidents to report. bd Over the course of my career there was a massive change in the company's approach to safety. Once a certain level of injuries and deaths was expected as part of doing business. Now, even minor injuries are carefully studied to determine how they could have been prevented.I recall decades ago a plant worker being praised by management for staying and fighting a fire. Today that worker would be in big trouble. The rule now is to evacuate to a safe location and then report the fire. The fire will be dealt with by company (and, if needed, city) firefighters who will be happy not to have amateurs in their way.

“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.”
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

Something a little more serious today from France.(I have rewritten the original incident description into simple English.)Screwed flange gave away and fell onto a worker’s right lower leg. Worker was trapped under the flange (which weighed ~150 kg) until rescued by the site medical team. Surgery was required for 4 fractures of tibia/fibula and foot bones.

“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.”
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

For a different corporate approach to safety, see [/break1]lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2014/04/wal-mart-worker-safety]this post from Lawyers, Guns & Money.Penny wise and pound foolish. If they bothered to track the losses due to accidents, injuries, worker turnover, damaged inventory, retaliatory malingering, etc., they would probably discover that taking better care of their workers was worth it.

“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.”
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

Workplace safety - one of the reasons I'm happy with law as a career. There wasn't a lot of that whole safety thing in the sciences. Once upon a time I was employed by a public entity in a research facility as a lab technician. The research that we did was related to oil and gas exploration work, and one of our common procedures required us to acid-digest carbonate rocks (limestones and dolostones). We did a lot of this work, which meant that we generally brought in 2 drums of 90% concentration formic acid and 6-8 drums of 90% acetic acid every 3-4 months, depending on research load. The acid was supplied, due to corrosive properties, in plastic drums. We also did on-site neutralization of the leftover material prior to (proper) disposal, which meant that we typically also brought in several 50-lb sacks of soda ash with each acid order. Normal practice was to have one working drum of each acid in the main workroom, with the rest stored in a purpose-construction acid bunker that was adjacent to both our space and the loading dock. I worked with one other lab tech, who was in a constant hurry. As you can imagine, constant hurry and drums of acid is not always an ideal concentration. 4:30 pm on a Friday, I'm in a second workroom running samples through the rock crusher when I hear a slamming door and an "oh shit." Apparently, my co-worker ran out of formic acid. And was in a hurry. So instead of waiting for me to come up for air, he went to get a new drum by himself. He then proceeded - because he was in a hurry - to try to put the new drum on the cart by hand, instead of taking the time to secure the drum to the lifter, lift the drum, put the cart under the drum, lower the drum, and so on. So he figures he'll just tip the drum, pivot it into place, lower it, and all good.He lost his grip about halfway through the process. 55 gallons of formic acid drum drops right onto the metal hoop that is supposed to keep the drum on the cart, and punches right through the bottom of the drum. This, believe it or not, should not be very bad. The acid bunker is designed with just this sort of contingency in mind. There are two doors, and in front of each door is a 100-gallon pit trap. All my colleague has to do is grab a big bag of kitty litter (kept for just this sort of occasion), lay down a couple of lines of litter to help direct the flow toward the drains, wait for everything to run into the drain, then pump the liquid from the drain back into a spare drum. Inconvenient, but no big deal.Genius boy grabs the wrong bag.Remember the science fair experiment with the baking soda and vinegar volcano? Scale that up. Exponentially. This is what happens when you rip a 50-lb bag of soda ash open and dump it onto a growing puddle of near-pure formic acid. Nobody got hurt on that one, but by the time the building spill response team got there, white foam was oozing out the cracks at the top of the doors to the acid bunker.

"I don't give a fuck whether we're peers or not."
--Lord Thomas Henry Bingham to Boris Johnson, on being asked whether he would miss being in "the best club in London" if the Law Lords moved from Parliament to a Supreme Court.

When I was an air quality inspector I was responsible for 3 companies that both manufactured and repackaged hydride gases. Gases like arsine, borane and silane. Pretty much all of them are poisonous gases and some of them are pyrophoric (or at least very easily inflamed). There were always small incidents, but the worst was when a tech was transferring trichlorosilane from a large tank to a smaller one. He forgot or just didn't bother using grounding straps. Which led to a fire (and him setting his own pants ablaze) and the evacuation of the plant, the surrounding industrial park and an adjacent neighborhood. Mr. Pants on Fire someone escaped without injury, but two other people ended up in the hospital. I don't think their problems were inhalation though, more like hurting themselves while trying to get the Hell out of Dodge. The company, in my mind, was being a little too blase about the situation, so I dropped a dime on them to OSHA. (OSHA's first response was, "We only investigate if there's more than 3 injuries or one death". But I jagged them a little bit ).

And to end the week-Canada-A contract worker's glove was caught and his fingers were drawn into the rotating masonry bit of a rotary hammer drill resulting in a restricted work injury. Belgium-A contract worker slipped and fell while exiting his truck after a lunch break. His ankle was injured resulting in a restricted work injury. A restricted work injury is one where a worker can stay on the job immediately after treatment but can not engage is some activities due to the injury. It is less serious than a lost time accident where the worker can not immediately return to the workplace. It is more serious than a first aid injury after which a worker can immediately return to work without restrictions. Other injury types are fatality and near miss. A near miss is an incident that might have caused an injury but didn't for whatever reason. For example, a hammer falls on a foot but causes no injury thanks to steel-toed safety shoes, a worker stumbles but does not fall, etc.

“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.”
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

Things had been going alone so well this month at my former employer but-SingaporeA process technician was tightening bolts after cleaning a pump strainer when the spanner slipped causing him to fall backwards and hit the valve stem resulting in fractured ribs requiring hospitalization.Coastal TexasContract scaffold builder was tying off while transitioning from ladder to scaffold when he slipped and fell several feet resulting in a fractured finger.

“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.”
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bumble Bee Foods and two managers were charged by Los Angeles prosecutors Monday with violating safety regulations in the death of a worker who was cooked in an industrial oven with tons of tuna.

Jose Melena was performing maintenance in a 35-foot-long oven at the company's Santa Fe Springs plant before dawn Oct. 11, 2012, when a co-worker, who mistakenly believed Melena was in the bathroom, filled the pressure cooker with 12,000 pounds of canned tuna and it was turned on.

When a supervisor noticed Melena, 62, was missing, an announcement was made on the intercom and employees searched for him in the facility and parking lot, according to a report by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health. His body was found two hours later after the pressure cooker, which reached a temperature of 270 degrees, was turned off and opened.

The company, its plant Operations Director Angel Rodriguez and former safety manager Saul Florez were each charged with three counts of violating Occupational Safety & Health Administration rules that caused a death.

Bumble Bee Foods to Pay $6 Million in Death of Worker Killed in Industrial Oven

Nearly three years after a 62-year-old employee was cooked to death inside a Bumble Bee Foods industrial oven in Santa Fe Springs, the canned tuna-maker agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges and pay $6 million in the case.

The settlement agreement came after a Wednesday morning court hearing and was announced by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, which said the deal included California’s largest known payout for a workplace safety criminal case involving a single victim.

Two employees who were charged in April alongside the company also agreed to plead guilty and comply with a variety of terms, according to the DA’s office.
.......
His family will get $1.5 million of the $6 million settlement payout.

Under the plea agreement, San Diego-based Bumble Bee will also be required to spend $3 million to replace the outdated tuna ovens with new, automated, pressurized steam cookers that won’t require workers to set inside. Ovens will get video cameras installed, and managers and workers will be required to get safety training.

The company will also pay $750,000 in fees, penalties and court costs.

The DA’s Environmental Enforcement Fund will get $750,000 for the investigation and prosecution of Occupational Safety and Health Administration criminal cases and for improving enforcement related rules. <SNIP>

The explosion occurred on a supply line connecting a harbor and a tank depot on the Ludwigshafen site at around 1120 local time (0920 GMT), according to BASF, the world's biggest chemicals company.

A fire that broke out following the blast sent up plumes of smoke for hours, prompting BASF and the city of Ludwigshafen to urge residents in the surrounding area to avoid going outside and to keep their windows and doors shut.

It shut down 14 facilities, including its two steam crackers, large units that make basic chemical components, for safety reasons and because the supply of raw materials was disrupted by the blast.

The Ludwigshafen site, around 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Frankfurt, is the world's largest chemical complex, covering an area of 10 square kilometers (four square miles) and employing 39,000 workers, according to BASF. It is located on the Rhine river and receives many of its raw materials by ship.

“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.”
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

Probably. I haven't heard of dust issues lately. I guess it was time for a reminder.

Aside: Since moving to the boondocks of Iowa 18 months ago I've seen a noticeable distain for OSHA and government regulations in general. The Iowa Legislature recently passed a bill that tightens workman's compensation payments. Yay for the businesses. Woe for the worker. It's all about jobs, you know. Safety is one of those pesky things that only cuts into profits. Jobs where $12 an hour and no benefits are common. Bring on more of the same. I'm glad I didn't spend my working years out in the boondocks.

Probably. I haven't heard of dust issues lately. I guess it was time for a reminder.

Aside: Since moving to the boondocks of Iowa 18 months ago I've seen a noticeable distain for OSHA and government regulations in general. The Iowa Legislature recently passed a bill that tightens workman's compensation payments. Yay for the businesses. Woe for the worker. It's all about jobs, you know. Safety is one of those pesky things that only cuts into profits. Jobs where $12 an hour and no benefits are common. Bring on more of the same. I'm glad I didn't spend my working years out in the boondocks.

I blame the Wisconsin incident on the Scott Walker mentality.

Are the workers at the mill likely to be immigrants, legal or otherwise?

Probably. I haven't heard of dust issues lately. I guess it was time for a reminder.

Aside: Since moving to the boondocks of Iowa 18 months ago I've seen a noticeable distain for OSHA and government regulations in general. The Iowa Legislature recently passed a bill that tightens workman's compensation payments. Yay for the businesses. Woe for the worker. It's all about jobs, you know. Safety is one of those pesky things that only cuts into profits. Jobs where $12 an hour and no benefits are common. Bring on more of the same. I'm glad I didn't spend my working years out in the boondocks.

I blame the Wisconsin incident on the Scott Walker mentality.

A sad, but real, reminder why worker compensation laws and OHSA are necessary.

"The people must know before they can act, and there is no educator to compare with the press." - Ida B. Wells-Barnett, journalist, newspaper editor, suffragist, feminist and founder with others of NAACP.

The plant processes corn for ethanol and other uses. A review of online OSHA records shows the plant was cited in January 2011 for exposing its workers to dust explosion hazards. The records state that plant filters lacked an explosion protective system.

The agency ordered the mill to correct the problem by April 2011. The records show Didion paid a $3,465 fine and the case was closed in September 2013. OSHA hasn't cited the plant for anything since, the records show.

Dust explosions are a serious problem in handling grain, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department. There were five grain dust explosions in the United States last year and two of the incidents resulted in fatalities, Purdue University said in an annual report. Keeping facilities clean of dust and equipment in good working order to reduce the possibility of igniting the dust are critical to preventing explosions, the report said.

OSHA is underfunded and understaffed. That situation may get worse because of Trump.

Part of the problem is that considering the large number of grain milling and storage operations that exist in the USA the number of explosions is quite small. It used to be much greater. This can lead to complacency on the part of management and workers.

A total of five grain dust explosions occurred in the United States in 2016 — a 10-year low — according to an annual report issued by Purdue University’s Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering.

Although the total number of explosions was lower than in recent history, two of the incidents resulted in the first reported fatalities since 2013.

According to the report, the five grain dust explosions in 2016 compared with eight in 2015, seven in 2014 and a 10-year average of 9.2 per year. Two of the explosions occurred in grain mills (FS co-op in Ixonia, Wisconsin, U.S., and White Energy’s gluten plant in Russell, Kansas, U.S.), two in grain elevators (Central Valley Ag in Hinton, Iowa, U.S., and Tate & Lyle in Francesville, Indiana, U.S.), and one in a feed mill (JCG Farms in Rockmart, Georgia, U.S.).

“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.”
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

ZekeB wrote:I'll be driving through Hinton tomorrow. I've seen that elevator several times and never noticed anything out of the ordinary. I'll look more closely tomorrow for signs of repairs.

BOTG!!!!

"The people must know before they can act, and there is no educator to compare with the press." - Ida B. Wells-Barnett, journalist, newspaper editor, suffragist, feminist and founder with others of NAACP.